the database is a sanitised snapshot of the production database so should be useful for testing to make sure the information is displayed properly and changeable. being that is it sanitised, private bugs, products, groups, attachments, and comments will not be present, and some features which rely on groups will not function.

email is disabled on this instance, which results in the normal account creation/verification process being unavailable. however you can use persona to create an account if required.

please point your various scripts and third party applications that use the XMLRPC/JSON API at the test server to make sure they continue to function properly.
a test instance of the BzAPI is available for testing your tools that need it – https://api-dev.bugzilla.mozilla.org/allizom/

as part of this upgrade, bugzilla.mozilla.org will be migrating from its current home in the PHX data-centre to shiny new infrastructure in the SCL3 data-centre. we will be running on a larger cluster with faster servers.

there are also numerous new features/fixes that are part of the upstream version 4.2, see the release notes for more information.

we are asking for everyone to get involved as much as possible with testing and feedback. file any bug reports in the production bugzilla system in the bugzilla.mozilla.org product.